MK Transisions....

Wow, time goes by fast........it doesn't seem that long ago that we were on our way to then "Zaire", via Kenya, to begin our first term as career missionaries. Ben was about to celebrate his 4th birthday, Abby was 16 months old, and I was 5 months pregnant with Emily. As Ben was a bit older than Abby, we had talked to him a lot about AFRICA. I remember when our plane landed at the Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi. It was 4am and we were exhausted from international travel and significant delays......but suddenly Ben was wide eyed and excited. We stepped out of the plane and stood at the top of the stairs in a cool Kenya breeze and said "Ben, welcome to Africa!!" He embraced the MK life immediately. Ben was a child who loved the outdoors. He learned multiple languages and could sing various Christian songs in all of them. He was an expert at lizard hunting and became quite proficient with a slingshot. He played with neighborhood kids and learned how to build little trucks out of pieces of wood and woven straw. He fell in love with soccer and played it in dirty roads for hours.....barefoot of course. As he grew he learned about other religions; animism, Hindu, Islam......and he learned how to share Christ with people of those religions.

This Sunday Ben leaves Africa to start college at Evangel University in Springfield, MO. This morning, as we were packing up things in his room I asked him "how's it been.....being an MK? Are you going to write any books about it?" He said "I love it mom.......I wouldn't change a thing.....and if I write any books it would only be good stuff."

We're so proud of Ben......of all our kids. They've gone through multiple international moves, new schools (Ben had 7 school changes from kindergarten till now), evacuations, losing all possessions, more moves, civil unrest, meeting new friends, saying good-bye to good friends, and yet more moves. God is so very good and faithful that through all of this they still love their MK life.

We will miss Ben terribly and I have tears in my eyes as I write this.....but we are also so very proud of him and excited to see what God has in store for him.